(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns adsorbers for the production or purification of a gas from a gaseous mixture, which may be used in the so called PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) or TSA (Temperature Swing Adsorption) processes by utilising the preferential adsorption properties of certain adsorbent materials, and more particularly concerns an adsorber of the type comprising, superposed in a vertical tubular vertical sheath including, at its lower part, a gaseous mixture inlet and a gas outlet, a lower annular bed of adsorbent material and an upper annular bed of adsorbent material each radially separating an internal duct from an external duct, respectively, the external ducts of the two beds freely communicating with one another.
(b) Description of Prior Art
An adsorber of this type is described in the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,384. In this document, the lower bed and the upper bed are partially separated by means of a metallic separation structure of biconical shape which increases the vertical dimension of the adsorber and does not permit to prevent a preferential passage of gas from bed to bed without radially and successively passing through the two beds. On the other hand, the arrangement described in this document does not provide means which limit the free circulation of gas between the upper ends of the external and internal ducts on both sides of the upper bed.